Entertainment Review

Deadpool

Q: Flight, telekinesis, molecular manipulation — what could possibly be a greater mutant power than these?

A: The power to make you laugh your ass off.

Deadpool should thrill devotees of the Marvel Universe, but it will also delight those who couldn’t give a s--- about men in tights and capes.

Here at last is a comic book character with whom everyone can identify: he’s rude, violent, vengeful and witty.

As fictional characters go, Deadpool’s (Ryan Reynolds) consciousness of being a fictional character is a stroke of genius — he can do everything any other mutant superhero can do, but he does it with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.

Even as it unleashes spectacular action, devastating violence and weirdly believable romance, Deadpool is spoofing all of the above, making fun of contemporary culture in a dozen different ways. It’s exhilarating to witness.

Deadpool presents us with Wade Wilson, an ordinary human special-ops type turned mercenary. He falls in love with the beautiful Vanessa (Morena Baccarin); then he falls ill, and seeks out experimental treatments — which, unbeknownst to Wade, prove to be part of the Weapon X program.

After much suffering, the end result of this treatment for Wade is a mutation that leaves him with a special talent to heal.

It also leaves him disfigured. Wade, once handsome, now looks a burn victim (or like Spawn — is this an homage? We’ll never know.) Withdrawing from his former life, our antihero picks the name Deadpool and dedicates himself to finding the villainous Ajax (Ed Skrein), the man who ruined his life.

Actually, the violent action begins at the beginning and never stops, with spectacular scenes of shooting, stabbing and carnage laid on with what can only be described as glee. And well-choreographed glee, at that.

The violence is over-the-top and comical, heavy on blood spatter and exploding brains. How can you laugh? But you do.

It’s like Road Runner meets Ichi the Killer. Sort of.

Deadpool is a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, only with fake science where the magic used to be, and with — finally! — the proper ending. Helping the fairy tale element are Gina Carano as the powerhouse Angel Dust, Brianna Hildebrand as the fiery trainee mutant Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Stefan Kapicic voicing the straight-laced metal monster Colossus; also in the cast are T.J. Miller as Deadpool’s buddy, Weasel, and Leslie Uggams as his blind roommate.

As should go without saying, watch for the Stan Lee cameo.

The movie has a stellar soundtrack, sprinkled with up-tempo pop tunes used ironically; even the music breaks the fourth wall here.

Everything about Deadpool, starting with the opening credits, is humorous. Although movies are the often the target of that humour, this is all about popular culture, going so far as to include an extended riff on the impossible names of Ikea furniture; it’s stupidly funny. Everybody involved seems to be having a wonderful time.

There’s a small mystery about the dialogue, however. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote the screenplay, but everything Deadpool says sounds spontaneous and Ryan Reynolds-y; you need only see Reynolds on a talk show to know that he and Deadpool have the same sense of humour, one that combines outrageousness and innocence – in a Canadian kind of way.

It would be interesting to know how much of Deadpool’s patter is ad-libbed.

It would be interesting to know who first realized that Reynolds was perfect for Deadpool. And vice-versa.